Chapter 35: Is it all set?

Following the backstage information, Bi Fang added this person in charge named Li Liming. In no time, the other party agreed, and the prepared message was sent immediately: “Excuse me, is this Mr. Bi Fang, the anchor?”

Li Liming had no choice but to be quick, as his supervisor had given a clear order to sign Bi Fang at any cost. If he couldn’t get it done, Li Liming had no doubt about the possibility of losing his job. As soon as he received an affirmative message from the other party, Li Liming immediately posted the prepared terms and benefits.

“Hello, this is the situation. Our platform highly values your potential and has prepared a special contract for you, which includes an annual salary of 6 million, a 60/40 split on gifts, with you taking 60% and the platform taking 40%. Considering that your content may not be able to support high-intensity live streaming, we only require that your total streaming time for the year exceeds 1,000 hours. This contract lasts for three years, which is extremely generous for a new anchor.”

Li Liming spoke earnestly, and at the same time, he believed that the other party would definitely agree. In all his years in the industry, he had never seen a newcomer get such a contract, especially an annual salary of 6 million, which was incredibly generous. However, to his surprise, the other party didn’t agree but immediately sent their demands.

“Gifts split 30/70, image copyright belongs to me, the 6 million annual salary only for half a year. If you sign for three years, the annual salary must exceed 10 million.”

Li Liming gasped, shocked by the demands as they were completely different from his supervisor’s instructions. As a new anchor, regardless of the potential, weren’t they asking for too much?

He decided to negotiate further, typing: “I’m sorry, Mr. Bi, this is absolutely impossible. Firstly, the half-year term is too short. Considering your live-streaming content, it’s unlikely that you can stream frequently. If you switch sides, our resource cost can’t be recovered!”

However, Bi Fang didn’t budge. He knew the other party was playing dumb. They were all adults and could not be without any judgment.

Even if the people in this world didn’t know about Bear Grylls, just by watching his live streams these days, it was evident that Bi Fang’s prospects were boundless. Becoming the top anchor wasn’t an issue. Anyone with a vision could see that, even if the person in charge had never watched his live streams, their supervisor must have been well aware.

The top 10 of Shark TV had annual salaries of more than 30 million, and their gifts were split 20/80. His demand for 10 million wasn’t even one-third of theirs. As for image copyright, that was non-negotiable as Bi Fang was still counting on endorsements to make money!

The reason for the low initial offer was just to pressure him. It was like the older generation haggling and cutting prices in half when buying vegetables. Even if both parties knew this was impossible, it was just the standard procedure before further negotiations, waiting for one side to reach their psychological limit and relent.

“This is my bottom line. If you agree, we can sign now.” Seeing the other person hesitant, Bi Fang didn’t want to waste more time.

Li Liming had no choice but to report the negotiation situation to his supervisor and ask if they should just go ahead and send the contract. But when Wang Weifeng, the supervisor, received the message, he frowned. It wasn’t because Bi Fang’s demands were too high; rather, they hadn’t reached his psychological limit.

As a supervisor, Wang Weifeng was very sensitive to Bi Fang’s live-streams, and he saw the potential in this field. He was prepared for Bi Fang asking for a high price, with his actual expectations being an annual salary of 30 million, the equivalent to the top anchor’s.

However, this was before Lu Junming arrived…

Three hours ago.

“Supervisor Wang, how about this? An annual salary of 3 million, a 40/60 split on gifts, and a three-year contract term. And we can do even better! Lu Junming already has a considerable fan base, with 30,000 viewers during his daily live streams. He’s way ahead of that kid in terms of starting point. Combined with our guild’s strength and resources, don’t you think we can succeed?”

Lu Junming sat on the couch, fully confident. When he saw the other party pondering, he knew the deal was as good as done. All he feared was the other party not considering the pros and cons.

Being repeatedly ignored in Bi Fang’s live-streaming room and finally getting scolded by his fans really got under Lu Junming’s skin. He had been thinking about how to retaliate since that day, and he finally thought of a plan.

If you’re going to do wilderness survival, so will we, and we’ll do it even better. Don’t even think of competing with us!

There were plenty of outdoor anchors in their guild. Weren’t any of them capable of wilderness survival? They had the support of their guild as well. It came down to a competition of resources, and their guild had more authority in the outdoor section.

In this case, the deciding factor became which person could bring greater benefits. Their guild had more strength and experience, and most of the well-known outdoor live-streams were under their banner. Moreover, the anchor they were promoting had a significant fan base already…

As expected, in the next second, Wang Weifeng stood up and reached out his hand towards Lu Junming.

“Pleasant cooperation.”

“Pleasant cooperation!”

…

The resources could only be biased towards one side without a doubt; one side would get the lion’s share, and the other would get the short end of the stick. Although Wang Weifeng was just a manager, he understood a principle; for capital, if a good recommendation slot couldn’t bring enough benefits, it would be a loss.

As for whom to prioritize resources for, it’s actually a simple question of profit margin. Bi Fang might be able to make 100, but he’d need 60, while Lu Wentao might only make 70, but he’d only require 20. The choice was obvious.

Moreover, Lu Wentao might not necessarily be worse off. As Lu Junming said, their conditions were actually better, and they understood live streaming better. However, it’s unwise to put all eggs in one basket. It would be better to see the response first and enjoy the best of both worlds if possible.

Thinking of this, Wang Weifeng said to Li Liming, “No problem, just agree to him first to ease his mind. However, it will take some time to draft a new contract, so it might be delayed by a few days.”

Li Liming was stunned but didn’t think much and relayed the message to Bi Fang. Seeing the other party agreeing, Bi Fang breathed a sigh of relief. Shark TV was the ideal platform he had in mind, and it could maximize his interests as well.

Although he loved adventure and freedom and enjoyed sharing his experiences with others, he still had worldly desires. Waiting for a few days wasn’t an issue, especially with some time left before his next mission.

Before that, however, he still needed to register his own studio. The price was affordable, and Bi Fang’s current financial standing could easily handle it. With a studio, negotiating with Shark TV would be more convenient and advantageous than signing as an individual.

With that in mind, Bi Fang immediately contacted the agent and planned to get things done as soon as possible. Registering a studio wasn’t troublesome now; it’s mainly about the cost and some taxes, and the whole process only needed a few thousand yuan.

When the registration was completed that night, Bi Fang opened QQ intending to check if he had joined the fan group, only to find several dozen friend requests on his phone.

Bi Fang didn’t accept any requests but went into the fan group to check the situation first. Upon entering, he found that the big group with two thousand members was almost full!

The chat records were filled with conversations on various topics. Occasionally, messages about him were asking when his next live broadcast would be and if the edited video was ready and where to watch it.

At that moment, Bi Fang remembered that he hadn’t edited his video yet. He took out his drone, transferred the video to his computer, and was about to edit it himself when he suddenly thought of the omnipotent system.

If it could capture footage, could it also edit?

Bi Fang immediately used his thoughts to inquire the system and found that it was indeed possible! Not only editing but also post-production audio and subtitles could be handled by the system!

[Ding! Automatic editing, post-production audio, and subtitles: 10 points/use. Do you want to use it?]

Without hesitation, Bi Fang clicked ‘yes’. 10 points weren’t expensive, and instead of wasting a lot of effort to edit something mediocre, it was better to outsource the task to the system directly.

After he confirmed the system’s editing, it took less than ten minutes for the system to prompt him that the editing was completed and had been imported back into the drone.